Rachel Sennott appears on the digital interview and at once begins an apology. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she says, appearing truly remorseful. Although she's only a bit late, she wants to justify. “I have such a problem, because I’m a yapper on the phone. “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Luckily, during an interview, that’s exactly what is ideal to experience. Moreover, it’s pretty unsurprising. Anyone familiar with her boldly LGBTQ+ and unapologetically crass project titled Bottoms—which she co-wrote with the director and featured in alongside her friend Ayo Edebiri—would already know that she holds plenty to say, ranging from about gender, intimacy, or the merits of creating a high-school brawl society. And, by the end her recent multi-episode program I Love LA, it becomes obvious that she holds further perspectives on the darker side of Gen Z life (At 30, Sennott is an honorary member of the gang, a tale-end millennial adept for connecting different age groups).
Influences and Creative Vision
The comparisons to the iconic series Girls are inevitable and Sennott admits to being a fan, referencing the show in addition to the classic series, Issa Rae’s show and Atlanta as guides for the project, which follows the travails of a social media star Tallulah and ally and aspiring talent manager Maia. However, the most significant influence on creative vision was reserved for Entourage, the show focusing on a rising A-list actor navigating in a gritty entertainment industry (choice quote: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). She began viewing it throughout the pandemic, became “captivated”, and chose to create a new version on it “targeting women and LGBTQ+ viewers”.
“I wanted to make a show where the internet, not Hollywood, was the industry, because my career started online,” she explains. The idea for I Love LA originated—partly—from her own, at first fractious, transition to Los Angeles and from her astrological phase, a much-talked-about event for followers. It was an era that involved her learn major insights, work-wise and in private life. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she says. “Settling in LA during my mid-twenties brought calm, but soon everything unraveled.” It was almost like these biblical tests …”
Starting Out
Raised in Connecticut, Sennott started developing and showcasing humor while studying theatre at a prestigious arts school. “I went through all the proper channels to try to perform, and they weren’t gelling,” she explains. “Every campus humor group turned me down after tryouts.” “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”
She took matters into her own hands, taking the stage at live shows with her friend and uploading uproarious (and distinctly) weird online content digitally. One, titled Baby Cult, centered on characters obsessively obsessed with pregnancy; another portrayed being employed at a trendy retail outlet as like being trapped in a scary movie. By chance, she connected with Seligman through the university’s film scene and eventually featuring in her initial project, titled Shiva Baby, a tense film set at a funeral gathering with shades of the Safdie brothers’ movie. A recurring idea of her career, she notes, has been people her own age supporting her, rather than traditional networks. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Not the gatekeepers”, she emphasizes, adding amusedly: “They don’t want us to win.”
Manifesting Dreams
Those who questioned regarding her then will surely be regretting it today. In what she describes as a “incredibly circular” turn of events, she seems to have manifested her dream vehicle. Previously she posted a clip called on LA life online, in which she mocked Hollywood trailers (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Now, she’s a lead creator (with the co-writer) of a show about Angelenos juggling advantages of digital stardom (such as socializing at a celebrity’s house) with drawbacks (your associate being accused of being a drug-addled stealer, and perhaps becoming a “brand unsafe” pariah). Some could tempting to create a show about internet celebrity that was overly idealized—or, more problematic, one that belittled at the characters. I Love LA does neither, making for a portrait of privileged millennial existence that’s honest about the grot and the appeal.
Empathetic Approach
“There have been a lot of shows that depict young people and their relationship to the internet in this very condescending, hateful way,” she says. “I think that young people have been through a lot – I’m mostly thinking of people younger than me, like my little sister, who went to college during Covid, so she had to come home, or my other sister who was doing school online.”|“The younger generation has faced significant
